Tribal girl gang-raped by cousin, friends on Rakshabandhan in Chhattisgarh

12-08-2014

RAIPUR: A 19-year-old tribal girl was gangraped by her
first cousin and his two friends on the sacred day of Rakshabandhan at Kunkuri
block in Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh.

The girl was returning home on Sunday afternoon when
her cousin Janu and his friends Rohit and Neeraj raped her at a relative’s
place, which is seven kilometres from her home. All the accused are aged
between 22 and 23. The girl is studying class 12 at a private girls’ school in
Kunkuri.

According to her statement, she spotted Janu roaming
on her father’s motorbike which he had hired for some work. “She objected over
the bike’s misuse and asked him when would he return it. As she was walking
back home, Janu offered her a lift saying that he would drop the bike at her
place,” BN Sharma investigating officer said.

The girl joined him but instead of taking her home, he
took her to a temple located on top of a hill on pretext of Rakshabandhan. Janu
then called his two friends who brought along food and alcohol to celebrate
picnic on the isolated location, police said.

“Soon, when it started raining they rushed to a
neighbouring village to Neeraj’s relative’s place where they gangraped her
under the influence of alcohol. It was around midnight when the accused went to
sleep and the survivor managed to escape. She could call her family only after
dragging herself to the highway as the place didn’t have mobile network,”
police said.

The accused were arrested soon after the girl’s family
reported the matter to police. Meanwhile, main accused Janu said in defence
that the incident took place with mutual agreement.

According to local sources, the family initially
showed resistance in lodging the case as the accused was a family member. But
in case of rape, the survivor is compensated with Rs 2 lakh by government which
induce the survivor’s family lodge the complaint.